Tipping Point

Summary

As historical archaeologists in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US turn their focus not just to Europeans and Africans, sensu Deetz, but to the region’’s Indigenous people, emerging interpretations emphasize resistance and survival in the face of the European colonizing machine. These narratives are aimed at challenging the deeply entrenched notion of the disappearing Indian, but they also tend to ignore the losses, especially through displacement, experienced by Native people. Using archaeological evidence, documents, and oral histories, our project is revealing a complex narrative of Anglo-Native interaction in the Potomac River drainage. In particular, for Maryland’’s Piscataway, English, and other nations, material culture allows for a more nuanced interpretation of shifting social geographies and their intersection with political leadership, social power, and inter-Indian conflict.